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Centre Of Bioethical Research & Analysis (COBRA) Resources:
Cobra Issue Guides

abortion

This COBRA Issue Guide on abortion provides a brief overview of the ethical issues and philosophical questions relevant to the practice of abortion.  It is not intended to be a comprehensive discussion of the rights and wrongs of abortion but as an introduction to the issues.  Please see the Further Reading section at the bottom of the page if you wish to explore this issue in more detail.

    II. It is wrong to kill innocent persons. Questions:

 

Alternative

Some theorists accept that the foetus is a human being, or even a person, but deny that it follows that abortion is always morally impermissible. (e.g. ­ Lockwood & Thomson).

For Lockwood, there may be reasons that override the preservation of human beings at a foetal stage, such as, likely handicap, difficulty in seeing that it will receive reasonable care and the burden that might be placed on the mother. On his account, "There is a limit to the degree of self sacrifice that can reasonably be demanded of someone in the name of duty".

Problem: the principle of 'reasonable doubt'. Just as we do not, or should not, convict people in cases where there are grounds to doubt that conviction, there may be cases where we might reasonably doubt that the perceived difficulties associated with having a child will actually come about. This line of argument has to be considered in conjunction with the idea of respecting women's autonomy.

Question: when, if ever, is it morally permissible to kill a foetus/ human being/ person? (In times of war? In cases of self

Defence? In cases of uncontrollable pain and suffering? Where more life, or life in a more substantive sense, will be saved as a result? Never?).

Abortion in Ireland

Abortion has a long and complex history in Ireland, as a predominantly Catholic country it is unsurprising that the law prohibits abortion.  There has been significant debate about the Constitutional provision protecting the life of the 'unborn' in the twenty-five years since its insertion in 1983 (for more on this, see Heskith, 1990).  The morality of abortion is deeply connected to our understandings of humanity, human life, personhood, divinity and autonomy.  These concepts are all complex ones on which there is no consensus.  We would recommend that you explore this issue further, starting with some of the readings below, and evaluate these issues and concepts for yourself.

Further reading

Articles by Thomson and Tooley in Singer, P., (ed), Applied Ethics, OUP, 1986.

Finnis, J., "The rights and wrongs of abortion" in Cohen, M., (ed) The rights and wrongs of abortion, Princeton University Press, 1974.

Glover, J., Causing death and saving lives, Penguin, 1990.

Lockwood, M., "When does life begin?" in Moral dilemmas in modern medicine, Oxford, 1985

There are many books and websites representing partisan views but two articles (available on the related websites) represent unusual positions:

Foster, S. M., "The feminist case against abortion" from The Commonweal, Sept. 13, 1999 - available from Foster's Feminists for Life organisation website.

Kissling, F., "Is there life after Roe?" in Conscience, Winter 2004-05 - available from Kissling's Catholics for Choice organisation's website.

Documentaries

12th and Delaware is a fascinating documentary depicting the real-life disputes in the pro-life and pro-choice debate. It shows the opposing views and ethical concerns of two women's health care centers in Florida, with one carrying out abortions, while the other, opposes them.

Noam Chomsky and Peter Singer on Abortion: This short clip, is a brief synopsis of many of the crucial ethical issues in the abortion debate. It is taken from the full length feature documentary 'Lake of Fire' (2006), available to view in full here. This fascinating documentary covers a broad spectrum of American viewpoints on this deeply contested issue, and assesses some key ethical problems from leading academics in this area.

Irish Resources

The Irish Government published a Green Paper on Abortion in 1999.  The introduction and downloads of the document in pdf and rtf formats are available at Publications for 1999 page on the Department of the Taoiseach website.

Hesketh, T., The second partitioning of Ireland?: The abortion referendum of 1983, Dublin: Brandsma Books, 1990.

Kingston, J., Whelan, A. & Bacik, I., Abortion and the law, Dublin: Round Hall, Sweet & Maxwell, 1997.

Riddick, R., The right to choose: Questions of feminist morality, Dublin: Attic Press, 1990.

Smyth, A., The abortion papers, Ireland, Dublin: Attic Press, 1992.

Partisan views - both in favour of abortion and against abortion - in the Irish abortion debate can be found on-line. Here we have provided links to one of the prominent organisations on each side of the debate:

Pro-Life Campaign (Ireland) is a non-denominational lobby group that promotes pro-life education and defends human life at all stages, from conception to natural death.

Make It Safe, Make It Legal is an organisation founded around the campaign of the same name with the aim of obtaining safe, legalised abortion in Ireland.

    

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